You might seek to create jobs by becoming owner of your employers company as your way to help revitalize the U. S. economy. Tax reforms in 1998 helped spur job creation and promote American business under the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) form of company, and further reforms may make it easier to encourage more of those kinds of growth and employment opportunities with such corporations.

Steps

1

Check into how an employee-owned company through an "Employee Stock Ownership Plan" (ESOP) may be managed and perform as well as ordinary companies ("non-ESOP") -- or perhaps better.

2

Research and learn the history of little more than a decade ago when the popular "S-corporation" did not have provisions for employee ownership through the E.S.O.P. form.

Employee ownership in the free market economy.

1

Realize that in 1998 an ESOP tax law made it advantageous for certain corporations to adopt the ESOP form of stock structure.

2

Examine the S-corporations which are privately held (do not sell stock on the stock markets), and thus fit the style of employee owned ESOP companies, for example:

Kramig Insulation has been in business since 1896 and is headquartered in Lockland, Ohio, with gross revenues now over $25 million per year. Kramig had been owned by two individual businessmen.

Favorable tax treatment of ESOP companies, however, has now allowed the company to be 100% employee owned, including almost 20% owned by females and minorities.

Kramig employs an average of 300 employees a week, both union and non-union. No employee is ever required to invest one penny of their cash in the company.

High levels of employee motivation for performance through an ownership culture.

Opportunity for all employees to have ownership in their own private business, by profit sharing with no capital invested out of their own funds.

Retain employees during economic slowdowns -- no layoffs, if that is at all possible, or as few as possible.

Investment in projects such as green technology are possible, by many means including insulation, using solar power as possible, air and heat based on geothermal techniques, drawing heat in winter and cooling in summer directly from the earth (geophysical sources).

Real estate management (leasing out or selling some corporate properties), can lead to new opportunities to invest for the company.

4

Take advantage of deferred tax as long as the employee-owner stays with the company on the S-ESOP companies' taxable income until an employee owner leaves the company and cashes in the value of his or her stock so that taxes become due on the sellers income from the sale, but avoided otherwise.

The S-corporation type of ESOP is said to also avoid the often hard to manage cash demand placed on privately-held ESOP companies to repurchase stock from departing employees.

5

Consider making your own plan to take advantage of this ownership of productive assets only by private sector employees (ESOP is not possible in government owned agencies, and government has little motivation to be efficient or to cut waste).

6

Try to learn more, support and use the current S-ESOP laws to form such a plan.

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Tips

You and fellow employees may participate in your own high performance American company -- in a highly competitive global economy.

Consider asking for reasonable changes in the law to help expand ownership by employees which may assist the core values of your nation, a nation of economic opportunity and participation in the free market.

Warnings

To do this you, your employees and the current owners of the company must be careful to structure the S-corporation most appropriately for legal and taxation reasons.

Under U.S. law, the S-corporation private shareholders, as the owners, are liable for assuring that all corporate taxes are paid promptly (town/city, county, state, federal) and other legal requirements are met, such as OSHA postings, and standards. So do not take chances in such matters, use competent accountants and attorneys, etc.